The Online Training Log of Charles Staley

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Bodyweight: 214.4

Today is a skipped workout. Left bicep still strained from Monday’s cleans, and although I could probably snatch today, pre-Thanksiving activities are getting in the way. I’m also testing my squat on Friday so I’d like to be as fresh as possible.

Friday, November 25, 201i

Bodyweight: 215.8

  1. Power Clean: 65 (3x5) 95 (2x5) 135x1*
  • Cleans still bugging my elbow, decided to stop at 135
  1. Squat: 45 (2x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 223x1, 273x1, 323x1, 367x1* (Video below)
  • This is one of the biggest squats Ive done in a long time- I like how it looked and felt…was probably good for 390 today.
  1. Bench Press: 45x5,135x5, 160x5, 195x5* (Video below)
  • Hard but solid- 200x5 next Friday should equate to at least a 245 single

Charles good to see you posting again! Congrats on signing up for a meet.

Lately ive been dealing with some nasty issues that are keeping me from lifting heavy (lower back and adductor strains) Im hoping to get it fixed soon, but these things take time.

ill be following along

Thanks Justin, sorry to hear about injury issues- please keep me posted- hope you get some relief soon…

[quote]Justin Negrete wrote:
Charles good to see you posting again! Congrats on signing up for a meet.

Lately ive been dealing with some nasty issues that are keeping me from lifting heavy (lower back and adductor strains) Im hoping to get it fixed soon, but these things take time.

ill be following along[/quote]

Monday, November 28, 2011

Bodyweight: 214.4

  1. Power Clean: 65 (3x5) 95 (2x5), 135x5, 185x1

  2. Squat: 45 (2x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 235x5, 285x5

  3. Bench Press: 45 (2x5), 95x5, 135x5, 180 (3x5)

  4. Curl: 40x10, 50x10

Notes: Left bicep still getting better but still felt it on the 185 clean so I moved on to squats, which felt heavy today- I think I expected 285 to feel light compared to Friday’s 367. Moved my grin out just a touch on benches, which felt very strong today.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Bodyweight: 214.2

Deadlift

135 (2x5)
185x5
223x5
273x3
323x1
373x1
401x4 (Video below)

Notes: Went into this with high expectations, was hoping for at least 6 reps, but felt heavy today for some reason. I’ll shoot for 6 reps in two weeks

Friday, December 2, 2011

Bodyweight: 215.2

  1. Power Clean: 65 (3x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185 (5x1)

  2. Squat: 45 (2x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 260 (3x5)

  3. Bench Press: 45x5,135x5, 170x5, 200x5

Notes: Bicep pain during cleans is 100% gone. Squats hard. Bench hard but solid. Solid session overall

Monday, December 5, 2011

Bodyweight: 214.8

  1. Power Clean: 65 (3x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185x1, 200 (5x1)

  2. Squat: 45 (2x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 260x1, 290x8 (Video below)

  3. Bench Press: 45 (2x5), 95x5, 135x5, 160x5, 185 (3x5)

Notes:

Cleans very easy and casual. Great squat PR for me…benches were solid. Went to do a set of chins at the end but felt my bicep so bailed.

I have no idea who Jeremy Hamilton is, but this is a beauty of a deadlift - great lumbar discipline:

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Bodyweight: 214.4

  1. Overhead Squat. BW (2x5) 35 (2x5) 45 (2x5)

  2. Snatch From Mid Thigh: 45 (2x5)

  3. Snatch From Above Knees: 65 (2x5)

  4. Power Snatch (Video below) 65x3, 95x3, 115x1, 135x1, 155x1, 165x1

Notes: Despite not having snatched in a while, feels very strong. I’ve got some left shoulder pain on the catch, but if it wasn’t for that, I’d be good for 185-190 for sure.


My Bodycomp this morning at 214-Lbs

Here’s Lydia snatching 268 at 165-pounds bodyweight…inspirational to say the least

Looking good Charles… I just returned from Biotest HQ, went to the Boot Camp!

Christian was impressed with my olympic lifting! I wonder who i learned from :wink:

Oh good stuff, hope your injuries are resolving. Testing my bench press tomorrow, I’ll keep ya posted…

[quote]Justin Negrete wrote:
Looking good Charles… I just returned from Biotest HQ, went to the Boot Camp!

Christian was impressed with my olympic lifting! I wonder who i learned from ;)[/quote]

Notes On This Training Template

Today starts my 11th week of consistent training, with 16 weeks to go till competition day on March 31st.

Squat And Bench Press:

Squats and bench presses are performed twice a week (Mondays and Fridays) where each lift is performed for 3x5 on one day, and 1x5 (with slightly heavier weight) on the second day. Currently Mondays are Squat 1x5 and Bench 3x5, and Fridays are Squat 3x5 and Bench 1x5. The current progression strategy is linear, adding 5lbs/workout until that strategy no longer works. I’ve been 1RM testing both lifts whenever I feel I might have a good result, but I’ve decided to test each lift on it’s respective 1x5 day every 3 weeks. I’ll work up to a max single, then bad down for my planned 1x5 set. I’ll do this today on the bench press. In this way, I’m not replacing a planned workout with a test session.

The only other deviation I’ve used on these two lifts is that I’ll perform more than 5 reps on 1x5 day, IF I feel fresh and motivated to do it. This provides a bit of variation, hypertrophy stimulus, and also provides me with some confidence that I can get at least 5 reps on the next 1x5 session.

Deadlifts

These are performed every other Wednesday, using a linear progression on 1x5, adding 10 pounds each session. I’ve followed this progression faithfully up until last session where I jumped straight to 400 pounds from (I think) 380. I got 4 reps with 400 last week, so I’l, stay with 400 for the next two pulling sessions, with the plan of getting as many eps as possible on December 28th. Then it’ll be time to add weight and (likely) drop reps

Other Lifts

I start each Monday and Friday session with power cleans, working up to 5x1, attempting to add 5 pounds each session. If/when I hit a wall, I’ll back down maybe 15-020 pounds and climb back up the ladder again. My thought is that increased strength on squats and reads should improve my clean, and so far, I’m confident in this strategy.

On the Wednesdays I don’t Deadlift, I’ve been Snatching and/or Power Snatching. These are going well other than left posterior shoulder pain on the catchâ?? this is the ONLY pain I’ve experienced since I started training consistently again on September 28th.

I’m trying to finish each session with either Chins, Dumbbell Curls, or TRX Rows, but more often or not, bt the time I’m done with core lifts, time and energy are not in abundance.

Philosophy

Using sets of 5 to prepare for a power meet isn’t exactly conventional, but here are my thoughts about this strategy:

  1. 5’s promote both strength as well as hypertrophy, in a way that saves the nervous system better than low reps do. I really never have that wasted feeling that multiple sets of low reps produce. Even after some recent big efforts, such as squatting 290x8 or pulling 367x10, I’ve felt fairly fresh the next morning

  2. Even though this program is built on 5’s, Im still testing the 3 lifts regularly. This not only helps me monitor my progress, it also allows me to taste heavier weights on a regular basis.

Other Notes:

I’ve had almost no pain or soreness at all over the past 11 weeks. The only exception to this would be last week where I pulled 400x4 on Thursday and then squatted 260 (3x5) the next day. On the day after these two workouts I noticed some slight adductor/hamstring soreness. That’s about it. I attribute this to a modest starting point followed by very small progressions from workout to workout.

As I mentioned artier, the only pain I’ve experienced is on snatches. Historically, any time of bench pressing with catch up with my shoulders after 4-5 weeks, but so far I’m 11 weeks in with no shoulder pain or discomfort at all. I actually attribute this to pausing my reps, which I’ve never done before. I’m amazed at how much safer this feels compared to touch and go.

Come to think of it, I’m now remembering that I was having some left knee pain walking around (never during workouts) but that’s gone away completely at this point, Not sure why,

Peaking For The Meet

If I don’t hit a wall, I’ll continue with the present strategy right up to the meet. If I DO hit a wall (which seems inevitableâ?? after all, if I don’t, I’ll be benching 280x5 and squatting 375x5 in late March, both of which seem very unlikely), I’ll need a new strategy. This strategy will involve higher weights/lower reps on some level, most likely submaximal singles, such as Sadiv sets. Even if this occurs, I’ll need some way to get recovered as fully as possible for the two weeks preceding the meet.

OK that’s about it for now, just clarifying my thoughts a bit…

Friday, December 9, 2011

Bodyweight: 214

  1. Power Clean: 65 (3x5) 95 (2x5, 135x5, 185x3, 205 (5x1)

  2. Squat: 45 (2x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 265 (3x5)

  3. Bench Press: 45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 175x1, 205x1, 225x1, 240x1, 245x0, 205x5

Notes: Interesting day on the bench…240 very hard but solid, 245 was an abject miss, Then came back to hit 205x5, which is exactly 85% of 240. This should mean that I’ll need to hit 230-235x5 before I can expect to single 275. It’ll be interesting to see if that relationship hold up in the future.

Wow

Thats impressive power!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Bodyweight: 214.2

  1. Power Clean: 65 (3x5) 95 (2x5), 135x5, 190x1, 210 (5x1)

  2. Squat: 45 (2x5) 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 265x1, 295x5

  3. Bench Press: 45 (2x5), 95x5, 135x5, 165x5, 190 (3x5)

Notes: Cleans and benches were hard but solid, squats were definitely hard. Other than that just another working day in the gym.

This might be the easiest-looking 528 pound clean & jerk I’ve ever seen. Amazing